Cubic wins ITS United Kingdom award for Forward Thinking Innovation

By Thinking Cities
April 23, 2015 14:32

Cubic Transportation Systems, and Transport for London (TfL) have received another significant accolade for their contactless bankcard payments solution. Both organizations were named the winner of the Forward Thinking Award for Innovation at the ITS United Kingdom Awards 2015. The contactless payment system demonstrates innovation at a global scale, as London is one of the first major cities to accept contactless debit and credit cards for travel.

John Hill, managing director of Cubic Europe said, “The Cubic and TfL partnership paves the way for ground-breaking intelligent travel solutions, first with London’s iconic Oyster card, and now with contactless bankcard payment. Developing the scheme required a readiness to engage with the mobile payments ecosystem. Transport operators and authorities worldwide can replicate our system for those who wish to introduce bankcards as a payment method.”

The Intelligent Transport System (ITS) UK awards are open to any organisation or individual with a UK business office that has a significant ITS UK content. The nominations were judged by an eminent panel of ITS professionals.

TfL’s director of Customer Experience, Shashi Verma said, “We are delighted that the work we have done with Cubic to deliver contactless bankcard payments across transport in London has been recognised with the Forward Thinking Award for Innovation. It is our goal to ensure the faultless delivery of a new convenient payment option. Our customers are now enjoying the benefits with more than 60 million contactless journeys already made in just six months.”

Central to introducing contactless bankcard payment was the Cubic developed Tri-Reader 3, which processes contactless-enabled bankcards. It also reads Oyster cards, ITSO cards and NFC-enabled devices and was the first reader in the transport industry certified to do so. Since introducing the scheme, more than 500,000 contactless journeys are made each weekday.

Contactless was first introduced on London buses in 2012 alongside Oyster as an alternative payment method. In September 2014 it was extended to cover all modes of travel; tube, bus, tram, train, DLR, London Overground and most National Rail services in London.